treadtread

So I'm taking my Sirrus in to the LBS to get its first tune-up - cable stretch, and possibly an untrue wheel as well. I may get it back Friday/Saturday. This means I have to drive in to work tomorrow, which bums me out a bit. What is your LBS's average turnaround time for something like this? Just wondering - this is my first LBS experience.

no1mad 

It depends on how busy the shop is, how many are already in front of you, and how many more come in willing to pay for expedited service*.

*One LBS in town I know of offers 'same day service', but you do have to pay a hefty premium.

iheartbacon

30 to 45 minutes or so during the week, weekend maybe 90 minutes or so. They have a lot of mechanics and the whole staff is cross trained to do basic things during peak service times.

mulveyr 

No idea, I've never taken it in for anything like that. The only mechanical work I've had them do is to swap out cranksets and headsets ( as crank and threaded headset tools are the only things I haven't bought yet ;-) and they're always very willing to do that on the spot. The couple of times they've done so they always do it for free, so I make sure I buy at least $10 or more of stuff along with it.

I've heard horror stories from people at other shops who have waited weeks during the early spring for things as simple as cable replacements. So the time of year probably has a lot to do with it.

fietsbob

Post Christmas in the winter will be quick..

high summer when everyone else brings theirs in, it goes in the queue.

count the repair cards already there ahead of you..


here, quick tunes on new bikes bought there, within 6 mos,
get a jump ahead of the queue.

bike touring folks passing thru also get triaged and dealt with ASAP.

Dave Mayer

Ha Ha. It depends on the weather and the time of year. On a nice Friday before the May long weekend, expect to wait 2 weeks. The staff will be curt and surly and expect to pay premium prices.

If you take it in on a rainy weekday in November, expect the bike to be up on the stand within seconds of you arriving, and the shop mechanics will be willing to share pizza and beers to alleviate their boredom.

It is just like downhill skiing. On the weekends the staff call in sick, and those remainding are grumpy, hung over and pissed off, there are lineups for everything, prices skyrocket and the slopes are a battlezone of incompetent fools hurting themselves on icy runs.

One the weekdays, it is a relaxed party for the locals who don't even get out of bed unless there is 6 inches of fresh snow and sunny skys.

bobotech

As quick as I can get it on the stand and fix it and take it off the stand. Never brought a bike to a real bike shop to have work done on it other than the coop but I work there.

fietsbob

N+1 back up bike time perhaps?

treadtread

Not yet - LBS was real nice. Fixed it up in 10 minutes, as soon as I wheeled it in. Spent the next 10 minutes chatting with me and answering various newbie questions

DCB0

The correct answer, as you found out, it: It depends.

If you wanted the same thing done on a Saturday afternoon in the last week of may it most certainly would not be done the same day. If you bring it in on a thursday in the last week of November then your chances are good.

I drove to the next town to get my son's new bike its first tune-up a few weeks ago. They told me on the phone before that they may have a chance to get it done the same day while I ran errands around town. Well I came back a few hours later and they had not had a chance to get it done yet, so no problem, I went back home... My wife told me as I walked in the door that they had called 5 minutes earlier and the bike was done.

steve0257

Around here don't even think of bringing your bike in the week before RAGBRI. During the winter you can easily get same day service. Summer time, here have been a few imes where the wait has been up to two weeks.

lopek77

My LBS is always scheduling repairs/maintenance for Mondays. Here is the problem... If you came there Tuesday, it means that you need to wait another 6 days. That's ok if you can ride your bike...You can take it for a ride coming weekend...right? NOPE! My LBS says that I need to leave my bike with them to be in line! My bike will sit there for 6 days and will collect dust and dents ;-) Makes no sense to me! They also suck in fixing bikes ( loose bolts, untrue wheels, oily/greasy brake pads... )
I found a solution to my problems... I bought ALL tools needed to fix every type of part on all my bikes, then, I started researching online for tips on how to do stuff (YouTube is a good place to start). I will say it proudly - I'M COMPLETELY LBS FREE SINCE LAST YEAR! ;-) It's not that difficult to fix a bike... Trust me.

iheartbacon

My bicycle mechanic background is extremely limited. I've never worked on anything like a bicycle with proficiency, everything seems... delicate. Coming from a background of electrical repair and maintenance, hot rodding, diesel truck repair, and welding you'd think I'd be able to work on a bicycle. Nope, to my LBS it goes. When I was a kid I had a bunch of junk bikes and I was often frustrated by attempting to keep them ride able. When I became an adult I swore I'd never work on a bike again because of my years of frustration. Now that it's been almost 15 years since I had crappy yard sale bikes I'm kind of coming around to the idea of working on them again. This time though I want some proper training. I recently bought "One Gear" which is a very nice book on bike repair. I like how in the beginning they take a bike completely apart and you can see in the photos what it's like to take it down to a bare frame.

As of now I'd be willing to build a 460 V-8 for a mudder but I wouldn't want to adjust the shifting gear on my Giant.

Machka 

In Winnipeg, it depended on the time of year.

If it was winter, many bicycle shops converted to skate and snow sport shops, so your chances of having a bicycle looked at were slim. If you were lucky, you might get it back in 3 weeks or a month.

If it was spring, everyone rushed to the shops to have their bicycles looked at. Chances are it would be 2-3 weeks before you'd see your bicycle again.

In the middle of summer, you might be fortunate enough to be able to stand there and wait for a quick fix, or if you had to leave the bicycle there, it might be a couple days.

And in the autumn, it was often a little bit busier again as people had post-season tuneups, so it might be a week.

Maybe ... depending on the shop.

mechBgon

At the LBS where I work, our no-show rate for appointments is usually about 1 out of 3. It's a really bad way to stay profitable, since we then have to reorganize the schedule, move the appointment and push other stuff out of its way, contact the customer... I understand you'd like to keep your bike in the meanwhile, but I also understand why an LBS will insist you leave it if you want a place in the queue.

As for collecting dust or dents... if you're getting a tune-up, your bike gets cleaned. And where I work, your bike has its own 32-inch-wide personal space to hang in, so it's not likely to get banged up.

Anyhow, average lead time in the busy season might be 2-3 days (a big improvement over what we were doing a couple years ago), but it'll depend on whether we need to order in some parts for the job. We order from our distributors weekly, which can delay the parts anywhere from a day to a week, depending on which distributor and which warehouse has what you need. Next season I'm going to push for us to order twice weekly from our closest distributor when volume's high.

Bikes vary... trust me

chisler

My shop is fantastic, for the work I have had done the average turnaround is 2 hours. I call ahead for scheduled things( a tune up), and am told when the best time to bring it in is. For the few mishaps I have had, one broke spoke, and one bad rear brake cable, the bike was attended to once I walked in the door, and I was gone in under a half hour. I love my hybrid, but I see a 29r in my near future, and I will be buying from my shop.

kearnybiker

Geeze you guys wait a week, 2, 3!? Around here it's same day service, maybe even while you wait. If its a really severe issue maybe the next day!

cafzali

In my experience, it's worth taking it to the shop that sells higher-end stuff, as they'll be a more popular destination and will have the staffing to handle "drop in" service and/or give you a fast turnaround. I've found that going to shops that predominantly sell lower-end stuff results in a longer wait because they get more people bringing in "beaters" that need a lot of work and/or aren't staffed adequately to do quick repairs. A good shop has people who only deal with maintenance and not sales.

rebel1916

Really, cause I've waited literally weeks for a tune up with no new parts needed in Jerz.

cafzali

It's not like the state really makes a difference, it's all about the shop. If your shop is making you wait that long for a tune up, you're patronizing the wrong one, IMO. A good shop should be able to get you in and out 2 or 3 days max if no parts are needed.

rebel1916

The guy said "around here it's same day service". That is rare in North Jersey. Depending on the time of the year, and the shop I'm not saying it never happens, but I don't see it. And in a few cases I've seen worse. And no, I don't patronize those shops anymore.

kearnybiker

I can't understand how waiting that long makes any sense. Sorry if you've taken it to the wrong shops and have waited that long, but I've never heard of such thing. You can even go into a busy mechanic and get a tune up within a day or 2 and that's a much more intricate and time consuming machine than a bike!

rebel1916

Agreed, car repairs rarely take more than a day. Bike repairs rarely take less.